Nace R. Magner

Confirmatory factor analysis of the styles of handling interpersonal conflict: first-order factor model and its invariance across groups.

Confirmatory factor analysis of data (from 5 samples, n = 484 full-time employed management students; n = 550 public administrators; n = 214 university administrators; n = 250 bank managers and employees in Bangladesh; and n = 578 managers and employees) on the 28 items of the Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory-II were performed with LISREL 7. The results provided support for the convergent and discriminant validities of the subscales measuring the 5 styles of handling interpersonal conflict (integrating, obliging, dominating, avoiding, and compromising) and general support for the invariance of the 5-factor model across referent roles (i.e., superiors, subordinates, and peers), organizational levels (top, middle, lower, and nonmanagement), and 4 of the 5 samples.

Testing a Model of Cognitive Budgetary Participation Processes in a Latent Variable Structural Equations Framework

Abstract Previous accounting research has suggested that subordinate participation in the budgetary process has two cognitive aspects: (1) participation enhances budget quality, and hence the utility of budgets, by allowing subordinates to introduce private knowledge into the budgetary process, and (2) participation enables subordinates to obtain information that is relevant to performing their jobs. This study tests a model that encompasses both cognitive aspects of budgetary participation. Data were gathered with a questionnaire distributed to managers from a variety of different national origins who were working in many different global locations. The data were analysed with latent variable structural equation modelling, which provides several advantages over more conventional analytic methods generally used in budgetary participation and other behavioural accounting research. The results indicated that participation enhances budget quality and that budget quality, in turn, has a positive effect on bud...

High procedural fairness heightens the effect of outcome favorability on self-evaluations: An attributional analysis

Abstract Previous research has shown that outcome favorability and procedural fairness often interact to influence employees’ work attitudes and behaviors. Moreover, the form of the interaction effect depends upon the dependent variable. Relative to when procedural fairness is low, high procedural fairness: (a) reduces the effect of outcome favorability on employees’ appraisals of the system (e.g., organizational commitment), and (b) heightens the effect of outcome favorability on employees’ evaluations of themselves (e.g., self-esteem). The present research provided external validity to the latter form of the interaction effect (Studies 1 and 4). We also found that the latter form of the interaction effect was based on people’s use of procedural fairness information to make self-attributions for their outcomes (Studies 2 and 3). Moreover, both forms of the interaction effect were obtained in Study 4, suggesting that they are not mutually exclusive. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Bases of Leader Power: First-Order Factor Model and Its Invariance across Groups.

Confirmatory factor analyses of data (from five samples: N = 308 accountants and finance professionals, N = 578 management and non-management employees, and N = 588 employed management students in the U.S.; N = 728 management and non-management employees in S. Korea, N = 250 management and non-management bank employees in Bangladesh) on the 29 items of the Rahim Leader Power Inventory were performed with LISREL 7. The results provided support for the convergent and discriminant validities of the subscales measuring the five bases of leader power (coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, and referent), and the invariance of factor pattern and factor loadings across organizational levels and the three American samples. Additional analysis indicated that leader power profiles differed across the three national cultures represented in the study.

CONVERGENT AND DISCRIMINANT VALIDITY OF THE RAHIM ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT INVENTORY-II

Confirmatory factor analysis with LISREL 7 of data from 1,219 managers on the 28 items of the Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory–II provided support for the convergent and discriminant validities of this instrument which measures the styles of handling interpersonal conflict and their invariance across referent roles and organizational levels.

The Fairness of Formal Budgetary Procedures and Their Enactment Relationships with Managers’ Behavior

Regression analysis of questionnaire data from 149 managers across 96 predominately manufacturing firms supported an interaction between fairness perceptions of formal budgetary procedures and their enactment by supervisors. Specifically, formal budgetary procedures justice was significantly (p <. 05) related to job performance (positively), helping behavior (positively), and propensity to create budgetary slack (negatively) when budgetary procedures enactment justice was high, but not when it was low. The results suggest that managers exhibit particularly positive organizational behavior when they view both the formal budgetary procedures and the supervisory enactment of these procedures as fair.

Evidence on the relationship between procedural and distributive justice in performance appraisal and accounting faculty attitudes and performance

Abstract This study examined the relationship between procedural and distributive justice in performance appraisal and accounting faculty attitudes and performance. Data were gathered with a mail survey of nonadministrative accounting faculty at U.S. colleges and universities and analyzed with regression analysis. Procedural justice was more strongly associated with commitment to the institution, trust in department head, and intent to stay with the institution than was distributive justice. Conversely, distributive justice was more strongly associated with performance. We discuss the implications of our results to persons responsible for performance appraisal of accounting faculty and to researchers.

Examining the impression management orientation of managers

The motive to manage impressions has been broken down into protective and acquisitive orientations. A protective orientation exists when an individual is concerned primarily with encountering disapproval, rather than approval, from the relevant audience. An acquisitive orientation exists when an individual is concerned primarily with obtaining approval from the audience. This study tests the proposition that organizational managers have primarily an acquisitive orientation. The affective sentiments of 95 international middle‐ and upper‐level business managers toward their organization, its leaders, and its business control mechanisms were compared with their perceptions of the acquisitiveness and protectiveness of their work environment. The results indicate that affective sentiments of managers are correlated with the acquisitiveness, but not the protectiveness, of the work environment, supporting the notion that managers have primarily an acquisitive orientation.

DOES ORGANIZATION-MANDATED BUDGETARY INVOLVEMENT ENHANCE MANAGERS’ BUDGETARY COMMUNICATION WITH THEIR SUPERVISOR?

Large organizations typically mandate that managers attend budget meetings and exchange budget reports with their immediate supervisor and budget staff. We explored whether such organization-mandated budgetary involvement is related to managers’ budgetary communication with their supervisor in terms of budgetary participation, budgetary explanation, and budgetary feedback. Questionnaire data from 148 managers employed by 94 different companies were analyzed with regression. Mandatory budget meetings with supervisor had a positive relationship with all three forms of budgetary communication with supervisor, and mandatory budget reports from supervisor had a positive relationship with budgetary explanation from supervisor. Mandatory budget meetings with budget staff had a positive relationship with both budgetary participation with supervisor and budgetary feedback from supervisor. Mandatory budget reports from budget staff had a negative relationship with all three forms of budgetary communication with supervisor. The results failed to support proposed relationships between mandatory budget reports to supervisor and budgetary participation with supervisor, and between mandatory budget reports from supervisor and budgetary explanation from supervisor. Implications of the results for future research and budgetary system design are discussed.

Roles of instrumental and noninstrumental voice in members' reactions toward interorganizational committees

Interorganizational committees make decisions that apply to various organizations and their members are representatives of these organizations. This paper examines how interorganizational committee membersʼ perceptions of noninstrumental voice, instrumental voice, and decision outcome favorability are related to their committee identification, helping behavior, and perception of go-along-to-get-ahead political behavior. Questionnaire data from 197 Pennsylvania tax collection committee members were analyzed with regression. Of primary interest, perceived instrumental voice had a unique relationship with all three committeereferenced reactions, while perceived noninstrumental voice was not uniquely related to any of them. These results suggest that interorganizational committee members react to voice for instrumental reasons related to perceived influence over other members rather than noninstrumental reasons concerning their committee status.